Alumnus "Exudes Confidence"

Youssef Yomtoob has yet to meet a school district on which he can’t have a positive effect.

The new School City of East Chicago superintendent, affectionately nicknamed “Dr. Joe” by those who know him, told the crowd of parents, teachers and administrators that everyone “is in it together” and that there will be no “they and us” once he takes over the reins July 1. The School Board voted unanimously to offer Yomtoob a five-year contract at a special meeting Friday night, the terms of which will be discussed during a public hearing at the June 30 meeting.

Yomtoob, whose career spanned 50 years before he retired from Hawthorn School District in Vernon Hills, Illinois, said his philosophy stems from research at a district he was in during the 1970s that revealed all students, despite their racial or economic backgrounds, have the potential to succeed. He carried those principles everywhere he went and said he left each place a little better than he found it.